1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a printing system, an information processing apparatus, a data transmission method and a data transmission program product and, more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, a printing system, an information processing apparatus, a data transmission method and a data transmission program product for forming an image of print-out data multiplexed in a vertical retrace line blanking interval of a television broadcasting or print-out data transmitted with service information data of digital television broadcasting.
2. Description of the Related Art
For purposes to effectively use a broadcasting radio wave and to achieve more improvement on service in television broadcasting, various kinds of teletext data associated with a program in television broadcasting have been multiplexed and transmitted in a specific horizontal scanning period thereof, which is a vertical retrace line blanking interval. Various kinds of information are included in the teletext data, and demodulation and reproduction of code data such as characters and pictures constituting a teletext program are carried out in a teletext receiver to display the code data on a television screen.
Digital television broadcasting, in recent years, has been put into practice: in which system an image and a sound are digitally compressed and transmitted. In digital television broadcasting, service information data including various kinds of information associated with a program is transmitted in addition to broadcast images.
As a system using such teletext data and service information data, a teletext receiver is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-101979 in which it is possible that teletext data multiplexed in a vertical retrace line blanking interval of a television broadcasting signal is demodulated to discriminate and extract URL (Uniform Resource Locators), the extracted URL is stored and the stored URL is accessed to display a web page.
An information processing apparatus, which is a printer with a television tuner, is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-341423, in which a text and a still picture or an illustration are taken out from information of teletext or data broadcasting included in a specified television broadcasting radio wave to process them into a predetermined layout and to output the layout to an image forming apparatus at a predetermined time point or an arbitrary time point.
A data broadcasting receiver is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-102550 in which broadcasting data including data corresponding to data specified by a viewer in advance is stored together with a video signal and a sound signal to which the viewer specific broadcasting data is multiplexed.
In such a broadcasting program, a case is imagined where, to be concrete, in an educational program, a small test is performed in the latter half thereof in order to confirm a degree of understanding. In such a case, a necessity arises for transmitting service information on the small test in the course of a program in display to print out a test paper on the receiver side. The reason therefor is that if the test paper was distributed or printed out in advance, a lecture participant would know a problem in advance, which disables a correct result thereof to be attained.
It is also conceived to offer a presentation through broadcasting by transmitting broadcasting data including document information. In such a case as well, the documents is required to be printed out at a proper timing. The reason why is that if a timing at which the documents are printed out was not proper to distribute or print out the documents in advance, an effect of the presentation would be reduced.
In actual television broadcasting, however, a case also arises where a program is interrupted and postponed by occurrence of a disaster or a serious incident. In such a case, a problem has remained unsolved that print-out cannot be realized at a desired timing in the teletext receiver, the information processing apparatus or the data broadcasting receiver disclosed in the above patent literatures.
An image forming apparatus has a case where an immediate print-out is disabled because of paper-out or the like. In such a case either, in the teletext receiver, the information processing apparatus or the data broadcasting receiver disclosed in the patent literatures 1 to 3, there have been a problem of possibility that a chance arises that an immediate print-out is not done at a timing at which print-out should be done in the teletext receiver, the information processing apparatus or the data broadcasting receiver disclosed in the patent literatures; a program progresses while print paper sheets are supplemented and when print-out is restarted, a necessary timing of print-out has passed too long. That is, in the above example, a case is also thought where answers of the small test have already been started in broadcasting while a paper sheet of the small test is still printed out. In this case, a problem has also occurred that the paper sheet of the small test printed out at a timing other than proper only to consume paper sheets useless.
An image forming apparatus usually has a power saving mode in order to suppress power consumption and a temperature in a fixing apparatus is controlled to be low in the power saving mode. Therefore, in the power saving mode, no immediate print-out is impossible. That is, print-out cannot be done immediately when a timing of print-out is right in the power saving mode of the teletext receiver, the information processing apparatus or the data broadcasting receiver disclosed in the patent literatures and print-out starts after a temperature of the fixing apparatus rises up to a fixable temperature. Therefore, a problem of a possibility has occurred that when print-out starts, a necessary timing for print-out is lost already. That is, in the above example, when a paper sheet for the small test is being printed out, a case also arises where the answers for the small test are already in the course of broadcasting. In such a case, a problem has also occurred that the paper sheet of the small test printed out at a timing other than proper only to consume paper sheets useless.
In the teletext receiver, the information processing apparatus or the data broadcasting receiver disclosed in the patent literatures, a problem has also occurred that print-out data to be scheduled to be printed out is received and thereafter, the data is held till a timing at which the start of print-out is just fit, whereas if print-out cannot be done at a desired timing, an image to be scheduled for print-out is left in an image forming apparatus to reduce a storage capacity thereof.
It is also conceived to acquire a broadcasting image through the Internet to use in a broadcasting program. To be concrete, it is conceived that the data of an educational program is acquired through the Internet to thereby take a lecture. In such a case, a lecture participant commonly issues a print command manually after a timing of print-out comes. Therefore, a problem of possibility has arisen that when print-out completes, a necessary timing for the print-out has been lost. That is, in the above example, a problem has also arisen that when print-out of a paper sheet for the small test is printed out, a time during which the small test is to be answered has been consumed by a greater part or has elapsed already. In a case where a broadcasting program is received through the Internet, a reproduction time differs according to a performance of a personal computer, which is a receiver; therefore, a problem has also arisen that it is hard to realize an output method for outputting the broadcasting program to an image forming apparatus at a predetermined time point, which is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-341423.